Churks

In 1960, scientists with the poultry research branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that they had successfully created a chicken-turkey hybrid. They called the new bird a "churk." It was the first time such a cross had ever successfully been achieved — one of the obstacles being that chickens have six pairs of chromosomes, and turkeys have nine pairs. Churks ended up having 15 chromosomes.

The scientists created three male churks. These three were not only the first, but also apparently the last of their kind.

Some features of the churk:

They suffered from mental retardation, having only half the intelligence of either chickens or turkeys.

They were mostly silent, only letting out a feeble chirp if disturbed.

They had the long neck, legs, and white skin of a turkey, but the general size and coloring of a chicken.

Their feathers grew twisted.

All three churks had some defects, such as crooked legs or beaks.

They had to be kept in a separate pen from the chickens and turkeys, to prevent them from being pecked to death.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

Sure thing, tadchem. Unfortunately this character, and many of its contemporaries like Deputy Dawg, Tennessee Tuxedo, Rocky & Bullwinkle, will never be seen again. Although their spirit does live on in some modern animation, such as "Family Guy."

Posted by KDP on 08/05/16 at 08:16 AM

I'm still laughing over that one, tadchem, as I do watching the adventures of any of the heroes from that program, like George of the Jungle, Dudley Do-right and Nell, and Sherman and Mr. Peabody in the Wayback Machine.

Posted by Virtual on 08/05/16 at 02:09 PM

I expect they tasted fowl 😊 and to: "Phideaux in his own little world"........A four legged chicken? How do you catch the blighter?

Posted by Dave P on 08/06/16 at 02:39 PM

@Dave P -- With 4 legs instead of 2, you're twice as likely to catch them in a snare.

Posted by Phideaux on 08/06/16 at 05:36 PM

This is pretty normal for birds. Birds, for reasons that aren't yet clear, can outcross with species far more distant than with other groups like mammals. Most of the time different species even in the same genus can't interbreed but birds can frequently interbreed with species in *different* genera as long as they're in the same family (as is the case here). Distant crosses have only male survivors (Haldane's law) and are generally really messed up.

These crosses don't happen in the wild because birds are pretty picky about mates.

Posted by Curtis Adams on 08/13/16 at 11:24 AM

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